Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

Yes I know I know. It doesn't matter because you should be able to wear whatever you want, and most niche scents today are unisex anyway, but as far as fragrances that are directly marketed to men and women, and unisex fragrances that are more predominantly worn by a specific gender, (i.e. Creed MI, Erolfa, and SMW being worn by men) who do you think has the better fragrances?

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

Women... just like they have better clothes and shoes. I always get irritated going to the mall because all of the stores are like 70 percent women's stuff. Then add all of the women's-only stores. Also, women's clearance sales are way better than men's, unless you are 2XL and then men's clearance sales are pretty awesome (no offense to 2XL guys, but women's clearances usually include more of the smaller sizes too). Men totally get the shaft when it comes to shopping. My mom and my girlfriend get annoyed that I always complain about that, but it's true!

Fortunately, I can wear a lot of feminine fragrances a lot more easily than say, sexy stilettos? That being said, it has been done! Gross...

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

There is a lot of junk on both counters to see and to smell.

Bottles first:
Favorites of mine are primarily lines with the same bottle for everything as done by Editions Malle ******, Lutens (2) *****, Villoresi ******, L'Artisan P, Etro, Lauren. Parfums d'Empire, I believe, also does that, but I have only seen them once.

I like black Montale bottles, and the silver ones are ok. Creeds are also in one style, but I don't care for them at all (utter kitsch when in gold).

I also like the bottle for the three Dior Colognes, the three Hommes, and the three Sauvages. YSL have a mish-mash, but at least those bottles have been the same over the years. The Spaniards have good, masculine bottles for men. Guerlains keep changing their bottles, and sometimes in the past they have been better than nowadays. Simple cylindrical, or cubicle shapes, that's ideal for me, and I quite like them tinted. The brown Cuiron bottle makes a lot of sense, and reminds me of old medicine bottles, as do some from SMN.

I do not envy women for theirs - except Chanel No. 5, which could be very masculine in 3.4 oz size.
Juices? If I like women's juices I'll just buy them: rose, iris, leather, or the usual stuff other men also 'borrow'. But I know why 80&#37; of my perfumes are masculines, or masculine uniscents. I think that's where I differ from Turin and more even from Burr: Mens fragrances are not boring at all! And I have managed well to avoid juices with poor ingredients. In fact, I find more exciting, sexy, gorgeous, masculine fragrances than I have time or chances to wear. Did men suffer when they had less of a choice between 1880 and 1980? I never heard about that! Not to be perfumed but applying a lot of soap was considered a virtue by a lot of men. Highly rated Guerlains or Chanels are not what I need, most of the time. I find plain designs and clear statements made by some masculines best for me. A lovely young, or rich womanly perfume is more at home on a woman, but I enjoy when she comes near, or passes by even. Disclaimer: I have yet to smell a truly feminine perfume on another man. If my impression of that should be a good one I might change my mind.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I agree with Turin's view that historic feminine fragrances that have been altered make better masculines. Still, Jicky is probably my favorite creation of all time. Closely followed by Mitsouko, Caron pour un Homme, Diorella, Habit Rouge and Shalimar.
Of course, classic women's far out number classic men's creations, but those early on, unisex creations from the late 70's - think Diptyque onwards, outnumber all of these. So, there is no easy answer.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I don't think you can answer this, because everyone has a different view on fragrances, and people like different things. Especially since many, many men obviously don't wear women's perfume because they're flowery and are supposed to be feminine, men would prefer men's scents because they would like a more masculine scent. (I think most of you can agree with me here, how often do you see a man wearing very strong, flowery, feminine perfume? it's rare, unless you're talking about like fleur du male). Same goes for women, I think they would prefer sweeter, feminine, flowery scents rather than strong, musky/woody scents. You just can't compare the two, because people would have somewhat of a biased answer depending on their gender. Fragrances marketed to different genders have different smells, why do you think they often make a version for men and a version for women when they make a fragrance?

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

Sometimes I think that frags for men are better because most scents for women are sweet berry juices. At the same time I am with those who believe that you can wear anything you like and if you like some scent marketed for women why deprive yourself from it?
Range of scents for women is wider, and yet, I think there is pretty much the same number of really good scents in both categories.
In terms of the prices: I agree that there are more sales, and female bottles are more diverse, and so on,
So I don't have a simple answer. All I can say is that scents are no shoes, you can still buy scents for women and wear them in public.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I tend to believe that as a whole men's fragrances are more original and more varied. Of course there is the enormous group of Old Spice smellalikes and simple citrus and aquatics but I think men are (re)discovering florals and ambery and vanillic scents whereas women's fragrances have been just that for years and aren't changing much. Add to that that any woman will have no problem wearing a fragrance targeted toward men, whereas most men will not feel comfortable sporting a woman's fragrance. So in order to get men to wear different kinds of fragrances you have to target the fragrances specifically toward them, thus expanding the body of men's fragrances as a whole.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I've bought about 150 women's scents over the last 5 years, and tested numerous others. I have a good nose for what women like. But quite frankly, there hasn't been one that I sprayed on my hand that I didn't go and scrub off fairly quickly. I dislike them on me intensely.

Most of my favourite niche scents - Creed, Piver and MPG - clearly know how to make masculine scents. The so called unisex Niche scents are usually a mishmash of male and female components, which they purport to be unisex - in sharp contrast to traditional unisex scents made up of fairly neutral components.
Renato

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

It varies depending on the history period we are looking. During first decades of the past century, female perfumes saw an exciting develpment. It was an era where good classics were created which today can and are worn by men, but still marketed for woman. After the 60s 70s men fragrances also enjoyed a good period of time where inovations and new develpments brought some materpieces. This period allows us to have some very good fragrances today (better than female fragrances IMO). However, after the mid-90s some fragrances started to become quiter and more subtle while female offerings have maintained a lot of theiy staying power and sillage. Unisex offerings have increased in number and qualty. This is where my current favorite fragrances are. Kind of remids me of the quote I heard in the movie trainspotting: "In the future there will be no men and women, just people*"

*The original english version says wankers but I saw it in spanish... stupid translations.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

However, after the mid-90s some fragrances started to become quiter and more subtle while female offerings have maintained a lot of theiy staying power and sillage.

I don't believe that one gender has better fragrances than the other.

While women have a larger selection, there is a plethora of stellar fragrances in both groups.

To me, the difference is, as irish said, in the sillage of women's fragrances. Overall, recent and reformulated men's fragrances seem to stay closer to the skin.

Perhaps that is why I prefer older and older-style scents. Despite the addition of more modern fragrances, the average year-of-introduction in my wardrobe remains 1981.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, ...... I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I have seen (in my limited local market) more well crafted fragrances available to women in department stores and other normal shops than men (well, more things I don't think are good, too) - so if you have US$50 to spend, you would have a larger variety of well crafted things to spend it on as a woman than as a man. When you go into limited edition and niche, the playing fields level somewhat, though at higher dollar levels (US$100+). (If you ignore the "this is for a woman" and "this is for a man" marketing choices, of course you have the whole spectrum to choose from).

For clothes/shoes - Women have a larger variety, but they also have to spend more money to stay in fashion, and from what I can tell, much is not designed to last very long perhaps a year or two at best.

Expensive/fashionable/formal male clothing & shoes tends to be much more durable and meant to last longer and stay in fashion than women's clothing - but has less "bling" too. I am not jealous of women in this regard as I have always preferred understatement.

Last edited by Bromo33333; 12th May 2008 at 04:30 PM.

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Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

Originally Posted by whosyourcaddy05

Well if nothing else, we rarely get EDPs... or really anything higher than EDT, for that matter...

In regards to EdT vs. EdP, Agatha Brown is quoted as saying, "In my opinion, 8% is like after shave lotion and I feel the guys deserve better." This is when she realized that the Conquest bottles and packaging were mislabeled as EdT instead of EdP like they really are.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

I think men's fragrances are more complex. Going through the shelves at fragrance stores, I find a lot of variety in the men's section, but at the women's section, I search and search before I find something distinguishable from the rest. That's why I get really thrilled when I find a new female fragrance that I love, because there aren't so many. Maybe it's just my nose.

Re: Who has better fragrances...Men or Women?

Originally Posted by Mostapha

I think men's fragrances are more complex. Going through the shelves at fragrance stores, I find a lot of variety in the men's section, but at the women's section, I search and search before I find something distinguishable from the rest. That's why I get really thrilled when I find a new female fragrance that I love, because there aren't so many. Maybe it's just my nose.

I agree, that I find more fun stuff in men's fragrances these days. Purely subjective as always. But here are some of my preferences in a side by side comparison:

1. Obsession for Men > Obsession
2. Spirit for Men (by Puig for Antonio Banderas) > Spirit for Women
3. Burberry Weekend for Men > Burberry Weekend for Women

Those are just some of the very limited fragrances that I've been able to compare. And perhaps the manufacturers meant them to be that way! (that I prefer the men's scent over the women's)

I won't wear Obsession for Women. I think it smells awful. But Obsession for Men intrigues me. And I *have* worn Spirit for Men and enjoyed every flippin' minute of it (and truly minutes because it doesn't last very long).